‘I shouldn’t be here… I should have stayed to talk this out…’

These were the thoughts swirling through my mind as I walked through the dark, dirty streets of Denver, Colorado at after ten o’clock as the rain came down hard.

I had just had a huge arguement with my parents about my grades in school. It wasn’t my fault. I’ve had an awful lot on my plate lately, what with my girlfriend dumping me for some weird guy named Lucifer that she met online. I couldn't sleep at all that night, and then the next day, language arts teacher decided to give us a pop quiz. Needless to say, I almost failed the test, but I didn’t. I managed to get a low D.

My parents weren’t happy with me. They took away my laptop and my personal TV. Tch. Like I care. The only reason I didn’t lash out at them was because Eva walked in.

Eva is my little sister. Her real name is Evangeline, but nobody calls a seven-year-old Evangeline. Since I am her older brother by eight years, I am very protective of her. I try not to lash out at anyone when she’s around because it scares her when I get mad.

This tumult of thoughts slammed abruptly to a halt as I noticed another person crossing the road up ahead. I began following, out of curiosity and boredom. I was curious, because everyone knows that nothing good comes after midnight, but in Denver, it’s more like nothing good comes after dark. I knew how defend myself, so my parents didn’t worry about me, but this person seemed like they knew nothing of what happened in the back alleys after sunset.

This stranger walked clear across Denver, and then turned and walked some more. In the back of my mind, for some reason, I wondered what time it was. I almost lost the stranger because I was distracted, but at the last second, I glimpsed the stranger disappearing into the woods. I followed, of course-I had come too far to turn back now.

With each and every step, I was led deeper and deeper into the depths of darkness between the thick trunks. I attempted to take note of the stranger, but it was so dark, I could barely see his/her back, let alone what he/she looked like. After what felt like an hour, but probably only a few minutes, we passed through a moonlit clearing, and I could finally tell that the stranger was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, strange black leggings that appeared to shift in and out of reality (probably just my tired and overloaded brain), and worn, steel-tipped black combat boots.

We kept walking. The stranger kept looking his/her wrist as if there was a watch there, and he/she kept taking really quick glances back, like he/she was expecting to be followed. We were still walking. I checked my watch, and was shocked when I saw it was after eleven o’clock. I was gonna have a lot of explaining to do when I got home. We still kept walking. I figured we were about two miles from town, maybe more. The stranger kept glancing from side to side, as if he/she was waiting for someone or something.

Suddenly I heard a noise. Like, the padding of feet or something. Then I saw them. I realized that the padding of feet was actually the padding of paws. Wolves’ paws. Wolves were there. They were everywhere. Just calmly walking along and occasionally snarling at each other. The stranger walked on, apparently unafraid of the wolves.

Suddenly, the stranger paused in the center of a clearing, moonbeams falling upon his/her figure, surrounded by wolves. I quickly ducked behind a large oak, even though I suspected that the tree wouldn’t do me much good if the wolves decided to hunt me down.

The stranger lowered the hood and glanced around. She was a young woman with winter-blond hair about an inch above her shoulders. Her eyes were glowing. And I mean they were glowing faintly, but they were still glowing. That was the only reason I could tell what they looked like. She had normal eye shapes, but the iris and pupil were bigger, bigger than normal. The pupil wasn't even black! It was a gunmetal gray color, surrounded by murky amethyst irises. Her ears were pointed, like elf ears, and they had little silver snake dragons wrapped around them. I guessed the dragons were supposed to be earrings. A silver dog tag on a silver chain glinted against the pale skin of her neck.

I was wondering many things. Why were her eyes glowing? How is that even possible? Why does she have gray pupils? Is that possible? Why are her ears pointed? Why wasn't she afraid of the wolves? Why were the wolves leaving her alone, instead of attacking her? However, the one question that kept coming back was ‘Who is she?’

But, all of these thoughts quickly fled from my mind as the girl tipped her head back and let out a bloodcurdling howl.